Wasteland 2: Fargo talks perma-death, squad combat

Wasteland 2 is going to be a hardcore RPG experience right down to the last pixel, according to inXile founder Brian Fargo. The developer gave VG247 more insight into the game’s companion system, perma-death mechanic and fast turn-based combat as part of a new interview.

We asked Fargo about the consequences of hiring companions – particularly because some of them will actively steal items from the ground, betray you and other unscrupulous acts. It’s a bad world, and many people in it are devoid of morality.

Fargo explained, “When you start the game, you will create four rangers that you spec with the attributes and skills you want. Along the journey, you’ll also run into many other companion NPCs that can join your party.”

“Each of these NPC’s has a different personality and will have their advantages and disadvantages. Some might be incredibly annoying but have an useful skill that you might not want to live without. It’s all about choices and trade-offs in Wasteland.”

“We will indeed have perma-death in the game. If you make a bad decision and get a party member killed, they won’t come back. We committed to creating an old-school RPG experience and we are definitely looking to make this a hard core experience.”

“Once you’ve recruited a companion NPC into your party, you now control them in combat along with your other rangers. We have over 30 skills that can be acquired in the game and no one ranger will be able to be effective in all of them.”

“Success in the Wastelands is centred around creating and using a team that works well together based on the strategy you’re using. I might also add that many of the choices the player make might not be felt for many hours later. This is another way of making the decisions in Wasteland 2 permanent as players have to live with the outcomes they create.”

We also asked Fargo about Wasteland 2’s combat system, which takes an old school turn based format, but at high speed. The two seem to contradict one another, so we asked Fargo how it will work.

Fargo continued, “We love the strategy of turn-based games but sometimes, they can be monotonous in combat. We’ve played and studied many of the popular turn-based games from the last 20 years including Fallout Tactics, Temple of Elemental Evil, X-com, Final Fantasy Tactics, Jagged Alliance, and many others. ”

“One example of some “fat” we’re attempting to trim is the wait time you have during the enemy turn. If multiple enemies are in the rotation to act before a players character is, they will all move and attack together. We also hate being forced into a fight with enemies that you can mop the floor with.”

“Slowing down the experience for an incredibly easy combat encounter doesn’t really add anything to the game. You’ll be able to resolve that combat encounter quickly without it dragging the game down.”

Expect out full Wasteland 2 interview with Brian Fargo during the week. In the meantime, check out what Fargo had to say to us regarding Wasteland 2’s use of the Unity engine:

Wasteland 2 developer inXile Entertainment’s Brian Fargo doesn’t believe people are sick of Kickstarter, and has attributed the smaller chance of success compared to what it was previously to “Kickstarter doing its job.”